The Change From OP to ATAR

The Queensland Government, working
with the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA), has announced
that new systems for assessment in Years 11 and 12 and tertiary entrance will be
phased in, effective from Year 12, 2020. The
new systems draw upon recommendations by the Review of Tertiary Entrance
conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research. What do the
proposed changes mean for Queensland students?

VET options through school based courses
and traineeships may still be offered

Assessment in the Senior Phase

# Assessment
programs are developed by schools
for each subject. These programs are
approved
by the QCAA. Schools set the assessment, and
grade the student
work, in line with the
approved work programs.
# The QCAA has processes for monitoring and
validating the assessment
instruments and the
grading of student results on the assessment.

# Results in General subjects results will
be
based on a student's achievement
in three
school-based assessments
and one external
assessment that is
set and marked by the
Queensland
Curriculum and Assessment
Authority
(QCAA). For most
subjects, the external
assessment will be worth 25% of the result,
except in mathematics and science
subjects, where the result will be
worth 50% of the result.

# Assessment in Applied subjects will be
based on school assessments (ie no external
exams)

The ATAR

Not Applicable

# An ATAR will be based on the strongest
results in five General subjects; or four General
subjects and one Applied subject; or four General
subjects and one completed VET Certificate III,
IV or Diploma

# An English subject
will be compulsory for students to receive their
ATAR. This could be a General English subject
(eg. English, Literature, English for ESL) or it
could be the Applied subject of Essential
English If the English result is not one of the
five strongest results, the other five
stronger results will be used to
determine the ATAR

# The new ATAR arrangements will
commence for students completing
Year 12 in 2020

The ATAR will be determined by the Queensland Tertiary Admissions
Centre

Queensland
Certificate of Education

All students who complete Year 12 will receive a
transcript of their results, which is called a Senior Statement.
Students who meet minimum standards in terms of their learning, and for
literacy and numeracy, will also be eligible to receive a QCE.

Students will receive a Senior Statement, and a Queensland Certificate
of Education if they meet minimum standards in terms of their learning,
and for literacy and numeracy (ie this will not change).

Overall Position

# Students
completing 20 semesters of Authority subjects (ie 5 subjects for 4
semesters) receive an Overall Position (OP), determined by the QCAA.

#The OP is
based on the exit (final) results in Authority subjects, standardized in
a process using QCST results

#
The OP is a
ranking score, reported on a 1-25 scale.

There is no Overall Position
determined for students in the new system.

Queensland Core Skills Test

#
All
OP-eligible students in Qld sit the QCST in Yr 12, which is made up of
four external papers, set and graded by the QCAA, testing essential
learnings across the Authority subjects.

There is no Queensland Core
Skills Test in the new system.

Tertiary Entrance

#
Tertiary
Entrance for most institutions in Queensland is managed by the
Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre (QTAC).

#
For
OP-eligible students, the OP score is used for tertiary entrance in Qld.

#
For
OP-ineligible students, QTAC determines a Tertiary Selection Rank Score
which is used for entry in Qld.

#
QTAC also
determines a Tertiary Selection Rank Score for completed Certificate
III, IV or Diploma courses which can also be used for entrance.

#
Tertiary
Entrance will continue to be managed by QTAC.

#
Instead of
using an OP determined by QCAA, there will be an Australian Tertiary
Admissions Rank (ATAR), determined by QTAC.

#
The ATAR is
number between 0.00 and 99.95 in increments of 0.05. This is not a score
out of 100, but a rank showing student's achievement against other
students.